Shattered Souls (Guardians of the Maiden Book 3)

Zev could count on one hand how many miracles he had witnessed in his life. Right now, it was seeing Dyna alive and well and with them again. Her laughter at something Lucenna said rang within the woods they traveled through. Since her return, Dyna was either stuck to him or Cassiel, as though she needed it. Neither of them felt the need to part from her side either.

“You’re staying,” Dyna said to Lucenna as she healed her broken finger. “I will hear no argument against it.”

The sorceress shrugged. “Well, I suppose if you simply must have me around, I have a moral obligation to comply.”

Rawn chuckled, sharing a look with Zev. They both knew she wanted to stay, and he was glad she did.

If it wasn’t for Lucenna’s quick thinking in forming a shield a split second before Dyna exploded with magic, they might not have all survived. They had yet to fully understand what happened. Some of the spell had struck him, and it led to vivid dreams of his past that Zev didn’t want to think about. On the other hand, Dyna didn’t have all of her memories back, but Lucenna assured them they would return in a few days.

But he was more worried about Tarn.

They felt an earthquake the day after they reunited with Dyna, and Lucenna said there’d been magic in it. Whatever it was, they made sure to move fast and cover lots of ground. Especially after Dyna revealed what the man was after.

The Seer’s divination was one of the freshest memories she had, and they fell in quiet shock as she recited it to them. At the description of each of them joining her side, it confirmed they truly were her Guardians, including Lucenna.

“In Corron, you saved my life when I tumbled down the hill,” Dyna told her. “I would have broken my neck when I reached the bottom. Then you helped me find my own magic.”

“For all of us to meet as the Seer predicted, I think much more will come of it.” Rawn looked worried, if not a little curious. “I anticipate two more will join our company soon.”

“Someone with a familiar face and a creature with the strength of ten. And you say Princess Keenali is the fifth?” Zev frowned thoughtfully of the dark skinned fairy. Well, she had been strong.

Dyna smiled. “Keena meets all the signs. I felt a connection to her as I did with all of you and she saved my life.”

“What about the familiar face?” Lucenna asked. “Would it be someone familiar to us or to Tarn?”

Rawn mused. “I would think familiar to Tarn as the foretelling was for him, but one can never be too certain with divinations. They tend to have more than one meaning.”

“Only time will tell,” Dyna whispered. Her expression was the same when the Druid had said her Guardians would reunite with her on their own. Did she know who the sixth one was?

It would be someone wanting revenge, and a man like Tarn must have a lot of enemies. Whoever they were, Zev hoped they would be his downfall, because he didn’t want it to be Dyna.

“Does Tarn have a love-mate?” Lucenna asked when they fell quiet. Because they must all be thinking about the same thing.

Dyna shook her head. “Not anymore. His wife passed away a long time ago.”

Which amazed Zev because the man didn’t seem capable of caring for anyone, not after seeing those cold eyes. It made him feel sick to think that such a murderous man could end up falling for his cousin.

“Then what else could the last line mean?” Lucenna asked.

“Love would be thy undoing,” Rawn repeated thoughtfully. “Prophecies have a tendency not to be forthright. That line does not explicitly name who he will love. Naturally, one assumes it’s the Maiden, but it could refer to someone he has loved in the past or does currently. Family for example, or even friends.”

Dyna nodded, looking down at her lap. “I thought the same…but all of his family is dead, and he has no friends. Tarn won’t allow himself to form an attachment to anyone, not even me.”

Cassiel’s face hardened. “It matters not. Next time he comes, I will finish him.”

There was an oath in that threat that Zev would gladly support.

The Captain of the Valkyrie swooped down and bowed to Cassiel and Dyna. “We found a place for you to camp further north, Your Highness. We will keep watch in the skies tonight. The Lycans are marking a perimeter.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

They had a small force watching over Dyna now. The Valkyrie protected her by law, and the wolves by kinship. It made Zev feel so much better about her safety. But he knew it wouldn’t last for long.

They came out of the forest and entered a meadow. Zev perked at the soft sound of running water.

A little beyond the way, was a small creek. The evening sun was beginning to lower in the sky in the distance above the trees. Cassiel and Dyna strolled ahead to the water hand in hand. Zev frowned as he watched them go.

Rawn came to stand beside him. “I know their union was unexpected, but they are True Bonded,” he said, as if Zev wasn’t reminded every time he looked at her glowing skin. “There is not much that can be done.”

“You knew about them, didn’t you?”

He flushed. “I may have overheard more than I should have.”

“They’re bonded?” Lucenna asked in surprise. “How? When? An exchange of blood means they are married.”

“She didn’t exactly consent to it,” Zev faintly growled.

“Well, she doesn’t look disappointed.” Lucenna grinned when Cassiel wrapped Dyna in his wings, his eyes never leaving hers. “He looks at her like she is the only one that exists in his world. It’s the very picture of devotion. I don’t doubt for one second his feelings for her are genuine, Zev. Why does it bother you so much?”

Zev couldn’t bring himself to answer.

He left Rawn and Lucenna to set up camp as they idly chatted about stopping in the next town to replenish provisions and maybe a new tent. He headed for the creek, not sure how to address what he needed to say, but felt he had to.

When Zev approached, he didn’t need to say anything. Cassiel looked at Dyna a moment and she nodded before he walked past him without a word.

Zev stared at her, recalling something he had heard about True Bonded mates. “Can you … speak to each other mentally?”

She smiled. “Yes.”

“What did he say?”

“That he would be nearby.”

Zev glanced over his shoulder. Cassiel was speaking to Rawn, though his attention never left her.

“He mentioned that you were still angry with him.” Dyna sat down by the bank. “Are you angry with me as well?”

Zev frowned and took a seat beside her. “Why would I be?”

“If I hadn’t gotten myself injured trying to chain the Other instead of fleeing, Cassiel wouldn’t have had to heal me. Then when he told me the truth, I asked him to keep it a secret from you. So I deserve your anger as much as him, right?”

The question made him see he had focused all of his anger on Cassiel for the bond, when it had been an accident. He could claim it was wrong because of where they both came from, but that was only a small part of it. The truth was, he wasn’t ready to let go of his charge.

“No…” he finally replied. “I am not angry with you.” Zev looked away to the far end of the creek, watching the water flow by. “Do you remember the Shadow?”

“The most significant memories returned first,” she faintly said.

“Do you…wish it was something you could forget?”

When he looked back at Dyna, she had her eyes closed. Even so, he could tell she looked sad. “I think I did at some point, but recently I learned memory is the core of who we are, and to erase it would leave us blind.”

It made Zev think of his father, and the day he wished to erase. “The day I found you half frozen in the snow, heart and mind nearly broken beyond repair, I swore to myself I would never let anything hurt you again. You needed me then, but I needed you, too,” he admitted. “I needed a reason to live, and I put that burden on you. Becoming your protector became a part of who I am, and now, it’s hard to let it go.”

He had placed the value of his worth on her to find some purpose to stay alive and combat his Madness. But by taking up that role, he didn’t let her grow, so he could be the one she relied on.

How was that fair? Even when grief had clouded her life, she never made him her raft.

Her hand slipped in his. “I know.”

“I asked you once what you wanted of me. Do you remember what you said?”

Dyna’s green eyes misted with emotion and she nodded.

“You told me to fight for myself.” A lump balled in Zev’s throat. He had been so distraught that day to have his purpose taken away. It had left him feeling so lost.

He still felt that way a little.

Dyna hugged his arm, pressing her forehead against his bicep. “I know it hurts right now, but whatever you face, good or bad, all of it passes in time. Sometimes life seems like a hopeless and endless storm, but the clouds will part. Don’t give up. Keep going. Keep living. Whatever hardships come, continue onward, even if one day your path veers in a direction you didn’t expect. Everything will be all right. Live. And one day, you will create your own happiness.” His skin grew wet with Dyna’s spilled tears. “That is what I should have told you at the grove.”

Zev kept his sight on the horizon as his vision blurred. He could see it. A new future forming ahead of him. All it took was the courage to follow it.

“When I was dying, I realized you were right. No one else can live my life for me. I’m fighting to breathe every day, but it’s getting a little easier. One day, I will learn how to fight for myself, too.”

His gaze drifted over to the forest where he could distinguish the white form of a wolf passing through the bushes. His own wolf stirred at her faint scent carried on the wind.

“This thing between you and Cassiel, the True Bond…has it changed you?”

“It has.” A smile lit Dyna’s face as she wiped her eyes. “I have a connection to him now, that is unlike anything I have experienced before. His mere presence puts me at ease. The second I see him, I can only describe it as this warm light illuminating my heart. I feel complete with him. He’s the other half of my soul.”

Her confession stumped him, and Zev forgot what he was going to say. He hadn’t thought her affections reached that far. As he watched Dyna fondly gaze at Cassiel fly in graceful arcs among the clouds, he knew Dyna’s heart was no longer hers.

“Please don’t tell me I shouldn’t feel this way, or that the Realms will contest our marriage. I already know that. It doesn’t change how I feel.”

“All right.” Zev wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I won’t.”

They sat quietly, listening to the flow of the creek pass them by as the sky shifted into the blue shade of twilight. He didn’t know when Dyna became a lady. She had grown on this journey and it made him a bat sad because she was no longer that little girl before the darkness had changed their lives. But at the same time, he was proud.

“You’ve made friends.” She glanced at the wolves watching them.

“They’re Lycans,” he said, and Dyna gaped at him. “I asked them to help me find you. They’re the Garou Pack from the west. They’re a good one, I think.”

A relieved smile crossed her face, emotion contorting her features. “Zev.”

“I don’t know what will come of it, but it helps to know I’m not alone. Seeing my kind in a pack, it…”

“Gives you hope.”

“Something like that. But they are here now because they also need help. Another pack further southeast is ill with distemper.”

She gasped and leaped to her feet. “You should have told me sooner!”

Once he introduced her to Ronin, Dyna walked off with his pack as she started listing ingredients she would need, asking how many were sick to estimate the quantity of medicine. They wrote everything down, and the wolves set out to search for the specified plants needed. It wasn’t a cure, but it would ease the pain and strengthen their immunities to combat the virus.

Cassiel eventually flew down and landed next to him some distance away from the others. They watched Dyna together, simply passing the time as night arrived.

“I don’t like you right now,” Zev eventually said.

“I know.”

“But regardless of how the bond came to be, the fates decided she was meant for you, it seems. I really can’t imagine why.”

Cassiel smirked. “Because I’m a handsome prince? What else would she deserve?”

“A less arrogant one would have been kind,” Zev retorted. But his start of a smile faded and so did Cassiel’s because this was serious. They were talking about her future. “I listened to Dyna cry every night for a year when she lost her family. She did her best to stitch her life back together after the Shadow shredded it apart. Always smiling for everyone when I could see the sadness she tried to hide beneath it. That night had fractured her heart. I did all I could to make sure nothing ever broke her again.” They faced each other. “I watched her grow into the woman she is now. I want to believe she will be happy by your side, but I worry she won’t be. I fear that your people will not accept her, that this fragile union will fall apart, and it will be another thing that breaks her. Can you tell me she won’t suffer?”

Cassiel gripped his hands together, his shoulders dipping. “I wish that I could promise you that.”

Zev knew as much, but to hear it still made his heart sink.

“To be a Nephilim, is to be scorned,” Cassiel admitted softly. “The Realms have never looked favorably upon me and I, too, fear that will fall upon her. Regardless of what happens or what they say, I can promise you one thing.” His expression hardened and a faint blue glow flickered in his eyes. “I will protect her with everything I have. She will always come first in all that I do, even at the expense of myself. I will shield her with my very life, until my dying breath.”

Zev didn’t know what the future held for them or what would come from their bond, but there was nothing more reverent than that promise. He felt it all the way to his bones. All of Zev’s opposition bled out of him at that moment, because he knew Cassiel would sacrifice everything to keep her safe. He couldn’t ask more than that.

At his silence, Cassiel heaved a breath. “Must I beg for her hand?”

Zev barked a laugh. He would never prostrate—

His laughter died when Cassiel lowered himself on his knees and deferentially bowed. He stared at him, too shocked to speak for a moment. “You would beg for her?”

“For her, yes,” Cassiel answered without hesitation. And his expression carried nothing but the truth.

“Good. Then she’s your living calamity now.” Zev clapped Cassiel’s shoulder, squeezing hard enough to make him wince. “As for my promise to you, if anything happens to my sweet cousin, I will rip out your heart.”

“Fair enough.”

Chuckling, Zev helped him up and they made their way back together. “Oh, and I won’t consider this a marriage until there is a proper wedding. Until then, if you attempt anything past holding her hand…”

“Allow me to guess, you will rip out my heart.” Cassiel’s smirk wavered as he watched Dyna laughing with Lucenna. “If the worst ever befell her, I would no longer have a heart for you to take. For it would be the end of me.”

Zev recalled how he fell out of the sky when the bond broke. His scream that rang through the woods was the most horrific sound to ever tear through his ears. A shudder sank through his chest.

It was the sound of a soul shattering.